This Ascent to Divinity is Lewder Than Expected

7.26 – Dreams at the Academy II

Fe blinked at Zoey a few more times, still baffled that she was sitting there in the Academy lecture hall with her—then she digested the question, and her expression of panic doubled.

"No. No, I couldn't have forgotten it. There's no way. My final project? I brought it, I know I did."

Yet her anxious search through her backpack yielded nothing. She looked up, seeming so distraught that Zoey almost second-guessed her decision to play along.

Instead, she tried an alternative approach: setting Fe at ease while also delving down what was sure to be a fun dream.

"It's no big deal," Zoey said, shrugging. "Professor said we could share projects, didn't he? You can help present mine. You helped with it, anyway."

"He said that?" Fe seemed confused. "Semester projects are individual, though."

Zoey cocked her head, feigning earnestness. "Oh, you didn't get his last—" She almost said e-mail, but wait, this wasn't a modern university. "—ah, message? He said group presentations are fine too. Hundred percent certain. So, you can join me in presenting mine."

Fe seemed befuddled as her subconscious adjusted to Zoey's hijacking of the dream. Then the expression cleared away into such relief that Zoey almost felt guilty for a different reason.

"Oh, heavens. Thank you. Thank you so much. I don't know what I would've done." Her face paled. "But … wait. Help present your project? Isn't that—?" She trailed off.

Zoey had told Fe that she had helped create it. So what did the sheepgirl's subconscious assume was Zoey's semester project?

Probably something fun.

"Yep," Zoey said brightly. "Why, that's not a problem, is it?"

"A problem?" Fe squeaked. "No, of course not, I'm super grateful. You're a lifesaver. Just—" She squirmed in place, then glanced at the front of the room where the professor was droning on. Impressively, he wasn't even forming real words, just a vague "blah, blah, blah," background noise that Fe didn't seem to realize was odd. Since Fe's focus was now on Zoey, not the professor. "But is it appropriate?"

Zoey pursed her lips. Fe's subconscious had definitely assumed something lewd. Hardly took a genius to deduce that. But what?

Leaning over, she grabbed her backpack and lifted it. Curious, she rummaged inside, seeking whatever Fe's imagination had conjured. Her fingers wrapped around leather straps. Eyebrows raising, she tugged the item out.

It was … some sort of harness?

A full-body one that would fit around a person's torso and lower half? In a rather appealing way, for that matter. It looked like fetish gear.

Fe's face turned crimson. "Wow. You finished it. I mean, of course you did, but—wow."

Pretending that she knew what was going on had worked thus far, so Zoey kept the act up. "Course I did. Had your help, didn't I? But, ah, just to make sure we're on the same page. What does it do?"

"It hasn't changed, has it?"

"No. But if we're presenting together, I just wanna make sure we're on the same page."

"Oh. Fair enough?" Her cheeks colored. "It's still—the Lust Harnesser, right? Like we talked about?"

Zoey felt her eyebrows go up. "Of course. But, ah, be more specific? Since we're about to demonstrate."

Fe pursed her lips. "Well. Assuming you got it to work like we wanted—and the runework is impressive, by the way, I'm surprised you managed such intricate detailing on leather—then it's supposed to harness lustful energies and store them for future use. Allowing us to empower items, maybe even moving them through advancements. Your skills inspired it, of course."

The girl was visibly excited explaining the item, and Zoey wondered whether it was a real-life project of hers or whether it was a spontaneously created idea to fit the dream's theme. She could see it going either way. It seemed ambitious enough for Fe, and aligned with her interests, but also fantastic enough that it didn't seem plausible. Maybe for Zoey's class, it was reasonable, but her class broke normal conventions; she was sponsored by a deity. A typical artificer, no matter how competent, shouldn't be able to 'collect lewd energies and harness them to move artifacts between advancements'.

In any case, Zoey replied, "Yeah, that's the gist." Then, ad-libbing more dream logic, she said, "I've done some preliminary testing, and I know it works. But it's going to take a significant starting charge to make it function in a flashy enough way for a good demonstration."

"And how are you planning on doing that?"

Zoey hummed and tapped her lips with a pointer finger. "I guess I'll have to make you cum really, really hard. Should be easy enough."

Fe paled at the bluntness of her words. "But. I know that's how the item works. But do you really think that's appropriate?" Her eyes flicked around the lecture hall, and her breathing visibly sped up.

"It's in the pursuit of science. And a good grade. So, sure, it's appropriate. Besides the whole, I'll be fucking you in front of all your classmates part. They'll understand, though." Zoey grinned at the sheepgirl. "Why? Does that make you nervous? The idea of cumming in front of your peers and professor?"

"Of course it does!"

"Perfect. Remember, we need a big starting charge." Leaning forward, she murmured, "So make sure you really, really focus on how many eyes are gonna be on you. How it makes you feel that all your friends are watching you get split open by another girl's cock. In public. Should I make you beg? I bet I can get you to say all sorts of embarrassing things once I'm inside you."Nôv(el)B\\jnn

The words did the job—Fe simply floundered, mouth opening and closing as her face turned a brilliant crimson.

Her response was preempted by the professor speaking.

"Alright, with that out of the way, let's begin." He shuffled a stack of papers on his lectern and squinted as he read the top page. "Ah. Miss Fe. The floor is yours. I'm looking forward to what you've prepared. Your work has always been promising."

To her side, Fe's head pivoted, and she stared with a look of dawning horror.

"First? We're first? Oh, no, you have to be kidding me." She buried her face in her hands. "I can't do this."

At her words, Zoey hesitated. "You … can't?" Some doubt crept in. "If you don't want to, you don't have to. I can fix this. The professor—uh, owes me," she lied. Hopefully, dream logic would continue to help her. "I can get you an extension."

Fe looked at her oddly. "You could? He owes you—?" She shook her head, then took a deep breath in. "No, no, it's fine. I didn't mean—" She gulped, and her face went another shade redder. She squirmed in her seat, clenching her knees together, and that did enough to alleviate Zoey's worries; the sheepgirl was clearly getting off on the idea. Had been since the start, hence why Zoey had been teasing her. But she'd sounded panicked when her name had been called, so Zoey had hesitated. "I'll be fine," she squeaked. "It's in pursuit of better understanding the nature of artifacts and arcane energies, like you said. Isn't it?"

Zoey studied her face for a second more and, satisfied, let her grin return. "Right. You're just being a good student." She stood, scooping up her backpack with the harness in it. To the professor, whose name she still didn't know, she called out, "We'll be presenting together, actually, sir. Like you said we could. It's last minute, sorry for the lack of notice."

"Ah? Hm, yes, I did say that, didn't I? That's acceptable," the older man said. "I know you two have been working closely with one another throughout the semester. However, please be advised that a two-person project will be graded as such."

"I don't think anyone'll be disappointed with what we have planned," Zoey joked, sharing a look with Fe, who, unsurprisingly, blushed even harder. "It'll be a real show we put on."

"Zoey," Fe hissed, slipping from her desk to join Zoey as they walked down the slanted layers of tiered seating. "Be professional."

When they arrived at the front of the room and turned to face the class, even Zoey felt a surge of apprehension. There were a lot of people here—and all of them had their attentions politely and inquisitively locked on her and Fe. For all that she knew this was a dream, her hindbrain recognized it as reality. The only aspect that distinguished this false scenario as a real one was a sixth sense in the back of her mind, a vague 'fuzziness'. The visuals, the sounds, even the feeling of her clothes against her skin were no different than when she was awake, though.

She reminded herself that the audience was conjured from Fe's imagination. That she wasn't actually about to fuck another woman in front of a hundred other people under the guise of presenting a 'breakthrough in artificing technology'.

Which was easy to tell herself, but harder to internalize with a sea of people staring down at her, Fe fidgeting to her side.

Ah, well. At least the perfect simulation made it that much more interesting.